


A Change of Pace

by dwarrowdams



Series: Eadgyd, But Not Sad [16]
Category: TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms, The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Animals, Family, Gen, Retirement, damn I wish I could retire at 43, kind of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:28:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28741764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dwarrowdams/pseuds/dwarrowdams
Summary: Eadgyd comes home to find a surprise from her brother-in-law, Theodwin.  Set about a year after "Bearhearted."
Series: Eadgyd, But Not Sad [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877335
Kudos: 2
Collections: All the Eadgyd All the Time





	A Change of Pace

**Author's Note:**

> So Eadgyd is close to retirement (she's gonna hang around for another in-game year before she quits adventuring to pet rabbits) and I wanted to write a piece to kind of smooth that transition.
> 
> I'm still going to be writing about Eadgyd because I love her, but expect some more fic about Frida (her youngest sister who's going to take her place in the game) as well.

Eadgyd smiled as she saw her farmstead over the horizon. She was still worn from fighting the trolls and would be glad to make herself a cup of hot tea, have a meal, and sleep in her soft bed.

However, as she approached, something caught her eye: an extension of the barn that looked freshly made. She quickened her pace until she was close enough to see it clearly. Now she could tell that it was more than a mere extension of the barn: it was a coop with a small roof and a little door. She peeked in through the door to see if she could detect what was inside, but it was too dark to see.

Vowing to get a better look at it later, Eadgyd continued towards her home and was soon met by a willowy figure with red hair and flushed cheeks: her sister’s husband, Theodwin, who had been watching the farmstead in her absence.

“I thought I heard you jingling!” he said as he rushed towards her. “Welcome home—I just put the kettle on.”

Eadgyd pulled Theo into an embrace, giving him an extra tight squeeze. “Thank you for taking care of the farmstead,” she said. “Happen to know anything about the new coop?”

Theo grinned proudly. “I thought your angoras might like to live in luxury,” he said. “That and Dalla knew of a merchant in Dale who could get me a decent price on wood that was harvested without bringing harm to the forest.”

“I hope it wasn’t too costly,” Eadgyd said as she followed him inside.

Theo waved a hand, dismissing her concerns. “Not terribly so—and even if it were, Dalla’s business is taking off nicely,” he said. “Even with four children, it wasn’t a strain.”

“Dalla still has time to sew even with little Ama?” Eadgyd asked.

Theo laughed as he shut the door behind them. “More than she had with the twins, at least. She says that after having twins, one seems so much easier.”

“I’d imagine so,” Eadgyd replied as she took off her boots, removed her mail, and set down her pack. “I’m glad things are going well for you. It’s been a troublesome few years, but I hope that the coming days will be better for our family.”

“As do I,” Theo said. “I know Frida’s itching to get back to traveling. She planned to wait until we were done having children, but if we don’t have another one soon, she’s likely to set out anyways.”

Eadgyd nodded. Her sister had always harbored an adventurous spirit and she was glad that Frida had married two people who supported her wholeheartedly in that endeavor. “Does she know where she might go?” she asked.

Theo shrugged as he took the whistling kettle off of the fire. “Not yet, but if she means to go alone, I doubt she’ll go far,” he said. “She’s more than capable, of course, but even she doesn’t want to take chances, especially with the world being as it is.”

Eadgyd nodded solemnly. She was well-traveled herself, but now avoided longer journeys alone due to the darkness growing in the world. In fact, if it weren’t for her companions, she doubted she’d travel much at all.

“Hmm,” she said. “I might have an idea.”

“Oh?” Theo asked as he set two cups on the table, adding tea leaves and filling them with tea.

“I keep getting called forth on adventures with my companions, but I can’t do it forever,” she admitted. “I know I meant to in my younger days, but things are different now and I can’t imagine carrying on like this for more than a few more years. I would much rather spend time tending to my garden and caring for animals than traveling with my companions until my hair has all gone grey. Besides, I think Frida would get along well with them.”

“Frida would get on well with a pile of laundry,” Theo said, grinning as he sat across from Eadgyd. “But yes, I do think she’d enjoy traveling with them, especially after all the stories you’ve told.”

“Good,” Eadgyd said. “Have her write me when you get home—I want to know how she feels about it before saying anything to my companions.”

Theo nodded as he stirred honey into his tea. “I’m sure she’d be glad to join a merry band of adventurers,” he said, grinning. “After all, how much trouble could it be?”

Eadgyd smiled, shaking her head at him. “Well, however much trouble it is, I trust Frida can handle it,” she said. “If she can train a dozen rabbit kits at a time—while raising children, nonetheless—anything else must seem simple.” 

“Frida’s one of those people who seems to thrive under pressure,” Theo said. “She’s at her best when she has plenty to keep her occupied—and keeping rabbits from chewing the house down certainly does.”

He paused to sip his tea. “Tis a good thing that my fathers don’t look too closely at the baseboards or in corners,” he said. “They’d find more than a few souvenirs from the rabbits.”

“If they ever do find it, just tell them to think of it as a memory for when you finish your own house and move into it,” Eadgyd suggested, before taking a long sip of tea.

“Then I hope they don’t notice anything for a while,” Theo said. “The outside’s coming along nicely, but the inside is going to take longer.”

Eadgyd nodded. Theo had dreamt of this house since he was a child, but he wasn’t one to rush its construction. He put so much care into every detail, from how the wood was harvested to the way the house would fit into the area without disturbing nature too much. Eadgyd had helped him work on it when she’d last been home and had been delighted to help turn Theo’s longtime dream into a reality.

“Well, if it’s half as nice as the coop you built, it’ll be worth the wait,” she said, reaching out to squeeze his hand. “And now that we’re on the subject: why did you build the coop for me?”

Theo looked down bashfully. “Even before I married Frida, I always thought of you as an older sister—and Eadgar as an older brother before he passed,” he said. “You taught me so much and it’s saved my life on patrols more than once. I’ve always wanted to do something to thank you, so I figured I’d build your angoras a fancier home.”

“Theo, you’re family,” Eadgyd said. “You don’t need to do anything special—just knowing you’re alive and happy is enough.”

“Well, it wasn’t totally selfless,” he admitted. “I’ve come up with some improvements to the design since I built the coop for Frida and I wanted to see how they turned out, but I didn’t want to waste lumber building another one back home.”

“So my angoras are going to be the first to live in such luxury?” she asked.

“For a while, at least,” Theo said. “I added some vents that you can open to cool them in the summer as well as some cushioned areas for them to rest in. Oh—and I have some special places for them to chew and a little seat that folds down so you don’t have to bring them back to the house to groom them.”

“That sounds amazing,” Eadgyd said. “You’ll have to show me all of it tomorrow.” 

Theo nodded excitedly. “If there’s anything you want me to add before I leave, let me know,” he said. “Oh, and before you worry about them, I brought the animals into the house when I was building so they weren’t frightened by the noise.”

“All of them?” Eadgyd asked, biting back a grin. The biggest animal she had was Buttercup, her goat, but she still couldn’t imagine the trouble that Theo had gone to by bringing them all inside—and letting them stay there while he worked on the coop.

“Almost,” Theo replied. “The chickens didn’t seem to mind and your goat got used to it, but the angoras were in here for quite a while.”

Eadgyd glanced around the room, looking for any sign of the dozen rabbits that had taken over her home, but there were none. “I hope they didn’t make too much of a mess,” she said.

Theo shrugged. “Cassia kept them in line,” he said. “She wasn’t cruel or anything, but when one started to chew on a rug or a chair, she gave them a little nudge. Didn’t take them long to figure out that they couldn’t just chew everything.” He paused, running a hand through his hair. “Damned things kept waking me up in the middle of the night, though.”

Eadgyd nodded sympathetically. One rabbit thumping or shaking at the furniture in the dead of night could be a nuisance, but she imagined that a dozen of them would make it nigh impossible to rest. “Home’ll seem a little less chaotic, I imagine,” she said.

“Oh, home is always chaotic,” Theo said, a wistful smile crossing his face. “Doesn’t make me miss it any less, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to miss playing Eadgyd when that day comes, but also she's suffered so much and she deserves to retire with her queerplatonic partner and pet all the bunnies.
> 
> (a sidenote: rabbits are crepuscular [most active at dawn and dusk] and they really do like to be loud at odd hours, so it's totally reasonable that they would keep Theo up. I know this because I have woken up from my own rabbits thumping or shaking their cages many, many times.)
> 
> Please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed!
> 
> Tumblr: dwarrowdams  
> Twitter: @_tenderqueer  
> TikTok: @tenderqueer


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